Threshold of Pain
by Fading Jade
Summary: Edited version of Dark Destiny, which I removed. Angst. We'll see if this one is better! :D Let me know.


Okay, I know I've already written this (formerly known as "Dark Destiny"), and I said that I couldn't correct them, but I'm going to try anyway. So, nnh!

Oh. And my name is no longer Akari. Where I got that from, I do not know, but I think it makes me sound like a child. Or, at least, a _younger_ child. I'm now calling myself by my original name, the one with which my parents bestowed unto me: Megan. Thank you.

(Sorry I sound so serious. I just had to get myself hiked up for the story. )

Threshold of Pain 

Love.

Betrayal.

Loneliness.

All these damned emotions were coursing through the girl's very veins, her very skin, poisoning her mind, body, and spirit.

Love and hurt pulsed mercilessly through her trembling figure, robbing her of the little happiness she had. She shook, the words echoing painfully through her pounding head over and over again: "I'm sorry…"

She fell to her bruised knees; the pain was all too much. He had broken her heart. Crushed it. Shattered it. He broke her. Kagome had barely registered his next words.

"Kagome, I made a promise…and…and I fully intend to keep it. I'm sorry it didn't work. Kikyou needs me. Goodbye…"

He had strode slowly over to the cowering girl, and kissed her forehead, his breath warm on her cold, clammy skin, his lips the softest velvet that had ever touched her trembling flesh. Without another word, he turned, and streaked off into the forest, following the scent of dirt and clay and hatred.

Never…never, in all of the time she had been here, or anywhere, had she ever felt such a horrifying sense of love, loneliness, and betrayal all rolled into one, thrusting into her, knocking her to the ground. It was place from which she could never rise.

And yet, she could not bring herself to hate him. Hate him for all of the things he did to her, said to her, brought to her. She could not hate him.

She had found the threshold of pain.

Sobs began to wrack her frail body, causing her to quake even more. Stinging tears made their way down her pale face, reminding her that he wasn't coming back…he was gone.

A knife was plunged into her heart and was twisted, causing unspeakable agony. Pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs, she began to rock back and forth, weeping uncontrollably.

The wind shifted in the trees, causing her to look up into the mighty, gnarled boughs of the Goshinboku. This was it. The place where it all started. The beginning. And it was the end as well…the end of their journey, the end of their friendship, the end of Kagome's unrequited love.

Standing up slowly, Kagome wandered aimlessly toward the potent tree, tears glimmering in the moonlight. She leaned up against its strong trunk, and fingered the hole that an arrow had made. That very arrow that had pierced him, sealing him to the tree…

"Inuyasha…" murmured Kagome, her words barely audible. A sudden throbbing coursed through her shaking body, causing her to become dizzy with grief.

She sank to the cold ground again, not caring that she was dirty, covered in mud, not caring that a demon might come and kill her in an instant. She did not care. Not since he had gone.

She repeated his name over and over, before finally giving into the misery that had threatened to overwhelm her.

"INUYASHA!" she wailed, pounding her fists against the mighty oak's trunk. Lowering her voice, she whispered, " I love you…love you…"

Fate was cruel, she realized. Destiny itself seemed to laugh at her, mocking her pain. Pain. The threshold of pain.

Inuyasha and Kikyou would be very happy together. She wished that. And so would it be.

She calmed herself, slowly, before raising her eyes once more to the tree. "I love you…"

Her breathing began to slow, as did her heart rate. It's pounding was inaudible to her anymore. All at once, it ceased.

Silence swept like a sudden wind upon the area. Creatures stopped moving, the breeze stopped blowing, and all was still.

She was dead. She suffered no more pain, no more loneliness, no more sadness. Despair had taken her.

During her last moments, one thought, one idea ran through her head: love hurt. Love was pain. Love was despair. Love meant letting him go. So she did, and she went with him.

Love. The threshold of pain.

Whew! Geez, that's a LOT of angst. Ah, well! The more, the merrier! Wouldn't you agree, Kat-chan? Anyway, don't forget to press that little button down below! I know you want to and _you _know you want to, too!

Megan


End file.
